New Blog

Dear DGHS Girls

This blog will remain in place and I will continue to update it for the foreseeable future. The new content will be more grammar-based and will deal with English in action and conversational English though - not much literature now.

You can drop by at this address: http://gaddthailand.blogspot.com/ every now and then to see what I am doing in Thailand.

Love
Miss Gadd

10G

Live as if you were to die tomorrow
Learn as if you were to live forever

- Mahatma Ghandi

Vitally Important Information for Everyone!

Dear English classes

While we learn a lot of English in Room 3-15, the point of all of this furious work is to prepare you for life.
School focusses a lot of attention on exams but no-one gives you a test to write when you are at work.

How can you better prepare yourselves for life, which is, after all, the point of school?

Have a look at these articles and bits of advice. The first article is about succeeding at university, but a lot of it applies to life as well.

Education
Secrets of the Most Successful College Students


This next article looks very intimidating but it is not!
In this article Mr Mike Brown, the CEO of Nedbank discusses a number of issues in a radio interview that was conducted on the Market Update on SAFM (listen every day at 6pm). Most of the interview is not very relevant to you but the LAST question is. Scroll to the bottom of the interview to see what one of the most successful men in the country says to young people like you!

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-safm-market-update/r-885

Grammar for Everyone!

Dear Classes

I have been reviewing Errors of Concord with my Grade 10 classes but here is a review of it for everyone.

An error of concord is when you create a sentence that grammatically disagrees with itself:
"He are a student." "Are" is the verb that should be used with "we, you, they" not "he."
Our biggest problem with concord is the following sentence: "There's many prizes to be won!"
"There's" is "There IS," "is" is the verb form used for the singular "he/she/it" but many prizes are precisely that: MANY prizes. So your sentence is not in concord with itself - it grammatically suggests a single prize but the words suggest many prizes.

The upshot is that you make no sense - oh dear!

Here are two songs that have errors of concord, can you identify them?





Here is a video imitating the Timbaland video.
Parody is "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect"

Satire is "the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues"

These definitions are courtesy of: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/

Is this video a parody or a satire?

Why not eat insects?

Here is Friday's TED video. Think of it in terms of what we we watched about the Global Food Waste Scandal.
What can you do to solve the world's food problems. All it will take is a decision to make a small change in each of our lives: Meat Free Mondays and Fish Free Fridays! It is as easy as that...or you can eat insects...

Grade 10s Very Important Information

Dear Grade 10s

Please do the first 5 exercises on Apostrophes on Page 2 of your Language Exercises booklet.
10 GLD: We will be marking the questions on "Poem for my Mother," "Let the Children Decide" and the language work on Wednesday in lesson 4.
Please will Set 1 and Set 2 go to the Lecture Theatre for lesson 3 on Wednesday and Thursday. We will be doing Poetry so please bring those booklets with you.

Grade 12s: London

Dear Grade 12s



"London" is a rather dense and sad poem so here is the Power point that I put together in case you missed any of the images.

This is also a useful, brief revision of the poem from the BBC. It has a reading of the poem and some ideas as to its meaning.

To hear a man reading the poem have a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bgUMoUNgJQ&playnext=1&list=PL0E775EE82A99301C&feature=results_video

Can you spot the mistake in the reading?

Othello

Dear Grade 12s

As we move at a cracking pace through the play it is important to do some extra reading as well.

Here is the Lit Chart for Act 2.3. I will continue to direct you to these as we read. They are a good way to revise the content and themes of the play.

There is another important concept that we need to deal with in the character of Iago. While we often label him as "evil," a more useful word that we can use to describe him is "Machiavellian." I know that this seems impossible to spell, let alone say, it is important nonetheless. A Machiavellian character is driven to succeed, no matter what the personal, social or external costs. I think that we can see how Iago is Machiavellian...
This is a wonderful discussion of the Machiavellian character. Please read it carefully! All credit for this goes to britaininprint!

This is a very simple little page that outlines some points (very briefly) about Iago's character.

This is a more detailed discussion to read.

Please note that I have not written any of these articles myself and take no credit for them at all.

Poor, glued words!

Dear English Classes

There are a few problems that I am noticing across all of the grades that I teach.
One of these problems in your writing is that you stick words together that should be written as separate words.


We need to stick these words into our brains forever and remember that they are two words!

in love
in fact
in front
in between
of course
a lot
a bit
as well
each other
one another
every day
at least

Grade 10 Homework for Tuesday the 5th of March

Dear Grade 10s

Your homework for next Tuesday is a little challenging. You are required to read the articles that I gave you and then compare them in terms of content, purpose, audience, style etc.

Here is the photo that printed poorly with the Louboutin article:



This is a photo of the red soles synonymous with Louboutin:



Most unfortunately though this is what might happen to you if you wear these shoes all day:

Autumn by Roy Campbell

Dear Grade 12s

Here is a Power point with images and some definitions to help you with the poem "Autumn."
None of these photos were taken by me, I am grateful to the people who placed them online!

Book Trailers (Grade 8s)

Dear English Classes and especially Grade 8s

We have been talking a lot about books recently. We have discussed their covers and blurbs and even made our own book covers (Grade 8s).

Have a look at these book trailers. They are like movie trailers but for books.









These are essentially blurbs in action. Do they interest you at all? Do they encourage you to read the books?

Grade 10 Homework for Tuesday the 26th

Dear Grade 10s

Well done for completing your homework this week.
Please remember that if you have a problem viewing videos or accessing online content you must come and see me about it - we can make a plan for you to view the videos etc at breaks or after school.

Your homework for next Tuesday is to:
Read the summary text about the needles that were found in airline sandwiches.
Then summarise it into 6 bullet points and
a paragraph of 80-90 words.

Read the poem "Let the Children Decide" by Don Mattera.
Treat this as an unseen poem, make notes on it and then answer the questions at the back of your Poetry booklet.

Othello Act 2

Dear Matrics

As we move from Act 1 into Act 2 it is important to keep up with what is happening on a literal and a figurative or thematic level in the play.

Here is another Lit Chart about Act 2, scene 1. It is a good, visual way to review the themes in each scene.

I will put the quotes that you found in class online as well, as a helpful reference when you are studying or writing the essay.

Romeo and Juliet Prologue

Dear Grade 10s

As we move through our Forum Discussions and into Romeo and Juliet, here is an excellent analysis and revision of the Prologue.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge--break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.



Remember that the Prologue is a compact version of the whole play. It is important that you understand why Shakespeare chose to divulge the plot to us at the beginning. How does our knowledge of the plot force us to focus on other aspects of the text? How does knowing the plot increase the Dramatic Irony of the play and the emotional impact of watching Romeo and Juliet fall in love? Think about these questions as we read the text.

Othello Act 1

Dear Matrics

Here are some very interesting videos of Act 1 being performed:

This one is Othello's speech in Act 1, scene 3 as spoken by Sir John Gielgud, one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the 20th century.





Here is the same speech as read by F. Scoot Fitzgerald, who wrote your set novel for the year; The Great Gatsby. It is interesting to compare his accent and speech pattern with the more formal Gielgud above.





Here is Iago's soliloquy "I hate the Moor" as spoken by Kenneth Brannagh, a great contemporary Shakespearean actor. PLEASE note that they have cut some of the lines from the speech. Follow it in your book as you watch the video.

The Global Food Waste Scandal

Dear Classes

This is the video that we watched on Friday with some other articles along the same lines that you might like to read.






Is it time we cut down on meat?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/sep/10/giving-up-meat-felicity-lawrence

The Meat Revolution:
http://www.culinate.com/books/book_reviews/meat_books

Grade 10 Homework

Dear Grade 10s

Here is your homework for next Tuesday:

You need to watch the two Nickelback videos and write a paragraph of 15 lines comparing and contrasting the videos in terms of their lyrical and visual content.
When we Stand Together:



If Everyone Cared:



The other exercise of your homework is to do the exercises on commas and apostrophes on page 1 of your Language Exercise booklets.

Happy Homeworking!

Summarising

Dear Grade 10s

We have been learning how to summarise a text in class.
Here are some guidelines to follow when summarising any article.

1) Read the article to gather what it is about. Remember to read the headline, the name of the author and the date that it was printed.
2) Re-read the article with a pencil in your hand: underline any important ideas or words.
3) Condense these ideas into bullet points.
4) Bullet points must be written in your OWN WORDS and in FULL SENTENCES. These should be no more than 20 words at most.
5) Turn rhetorical questions into statements.
6) Leave out unnecessary details like people's names (unless this is vital), dates, quotes, descriptions, emotive language and imagery.
7) Write in the third person - not as "I."
8) Use a formal register.
9) Do not add your opinion on the matter or any extra information that you might have about the topic.
10) Write a paragraph in full sentences and your own words.
11) Proof read your paragraph to ensure that there are no errors.
12) You MUST put a WORD COUNT at the bottom of your paragraph

Apostrophes

Have a look here for a complete guide to using the apostrophe!

Othello Act 1.1 and Act 1.2

Dear Grade 12s

Here is a useful guide to what happens in Act 1.1. You will need to match the coloured blocks next to the text to the Theme Key on the left-hand side of the page.

Here is the same sort of guide to Act 1.2.

Happy reading!

Comprehensions

Dear English Classes

(This is a repeat of a previous post)

Everyone has to write comprehension tests every now and then.
They are generally something that you dislike doing as many of you think that "comprehensions are difficult!"

They do not need to be difficult if you remember to follow some simple but important guidelines.

1) Take a deep breath, calm down and think slowly.
2) Draw a margin down the right hand side of the page and write your full name, class and teacher's name at the top of the page.
3) Read the text carefully and underline and words and ideas that you think are important.
4) Read the questions carefully and underline any important words in the question:
Eg. What is the author’s attitude to ducks? Identify the tone of lines 5-7 that shows this attitude. Quote to support your answer.
5) Write your answers in full sentences and do not begin those sentences with conjunctions: “and, but or because.”
6) Please write clear and specific answers. For example: “He told him that he played golf with his boss and would get him fired if he continued to be so rude.” This is meant to be about Mr Birling and Inspector Goole from An Inspector Calls but it is very poorly constructed. I have no idea who you are referring to.
7) Always State your answer, Support it with evidence (a quote or an example) from the text and Explain the link between your evidence and your answer.
8) Please leave a line between your answers. This gives me the space to scribble my thoughts on your answer; it gives you the space to add any information needed when we go through the test in class and finally you can add to your own answer if you receive a flash of inspiration during the test.

The most important of all of these guidelines is to think slowly!

Good luck for your comprehensions in the future!

Important Dates for Term 1

Dear English Classes

Here are the important dates (so far) for Term 1. I will update this as we get more information.

Grade 12:
Standardised Comprehension and Language Test: 31 January.
Commonwealth Essay to be written in class: 4 February.

Grade 11:
Standardised Comprehension and Language Test: 28 February

Grade 10:
Standardised Comprehension and Language Test: 7 February
Commonwealth Essay to be written in class: 13-15 February.

Grade 9:
Standardised Comprehension and Language Test: 7 March

Grade 8:
Standardised Comprehension and Language Test: 31 January
Diary Entry:

Matrics: Othello Introduction

Dear Grade 12s.

Here are the links to the websites we looked at this morning with reference to Othello.

The Tragic Hero:
http://shakespeare.nuvvo.com/lesson/4435-elements-of-a-tragic-hero-in-literature

Othello as a Tragic Hero:
http://whatsitallaboutshakespeare.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-othello-tragic-hero.html

Map of the Mediterranean:
http://www.welt-atlas.de/datenbank/karten/karte-4-634.gif

Editing Checklist

Dear English Classes

Some of us really do not like the writing component of English - we get stuck when we have to edit our work and land up with red pen all over our essays. It is terrible as we try so hard but still somehow make mistakes.

Take a look at this Editing Checklist and make sure you aren't making any of these simple errors:
1) Don't never use double negatives.
2) Concord between subjects and verbs are vital.
3) Use a dictionary to look up difficult words and check your spelling.
4) Use a Thesaurus to find synonyms so you don't use the same word repeatedly.
5) Punctuate correctly:
- Do not use more than one exclamation mark!!!
- Avoid, the temptation, to use too many, commas.
- Do not abuse commas and use them to glue sentences together.
- Capital letters should only be used at the beginning of sentences and proper
nouns - do not use them in sentences as YOU ARE SHOUTING.
- Do not abuse ellipsis ... and use them ... in excess ... or else ...
- Apostrophe's should be used to show ommision and possession; try not to make
mistakes's when you use them.
6) Be careful to never split an infinitive.
7) Read your work carefully you have written it to ensure that you have not left words out or or repeated them.
8) Every sentence needs a main clause and a subject.
9) Do not begin a sentence with "and." And do not begin a sentence with "but" either. Use conjunctions to join sentences.
10) American spelling is out of favor - we are in South Africa.
11) Every sentence needs a finite verb.
12) Do not end sentences with prepositions.
13) Choose your pronouns carefully and use them correctly.
14) Do not over-use inverted commas.
15) Style is important:
- Keep your vocabulary simple and to the point.
- Avoid cheesy cliches.
- Avoid repetition and unnecessary redundancy which appears here, there and
everywhere. Check for repetition or repeated ideas that have been said
before,
earlier in your text.
- Use a consistent style and register and don't allow inappropriate colloquial
language to rock up without an invite.
- You will find that writing short and focussed sentences will avoid, you
making unnecessary and avoidable punctuation, grammar and content errors that
invariably make your work difficult to read and understand and cloud the real
meaning of the thing that you are trying, but not really succeeding to say.
- Do not mix your metaphors.
- Using inappropriate jargon and sounding like a politician whereby you attempt
to exemplify the properest means of communicating ideas to the stakeholders
only makes you sound silly.
- Inappropriate use of hyperbole will see you thrown out of the window for your
crimes.

Expand your knowledge of English

Dear 2013 Classes

Here is an interesting list of Collective Nouns with some history on their creation.

It is worth a read - some of them are quite unexpected!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/33580/50-collective-nouns-bolster-your-vocabulary

Take a look at the Comments at the bottom of the page too.

Welcome!

Dear English Classes

Welcome to English in 2013!

Before we begin classes you can have a look at these two videos:





Keep looking at the blog for updates on homework, classwork and tests.

I hope that we have a lot of fun together this year!